In this specification where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge; or known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.
Cane Sugar Refining
After being mechanically harvested, sugar cane is transported to a mill and crushed between serrated rollers. The crushed sugar cane is then pressed to extract the raw sugar juice, while the bagasse (leftover fibrous material) is used for fuel. The raw juice is then heated to its boiling point to extract any impurities, then lime and bleaching agents are added and mill mud is removed. The raw juice is further heated under vacuum to concentrate and increase Brix value. The concentrated syrup is seeded to produce bulk sugar crystals and a thick syrup known as molasses. The two are separated by a centrifuge and the molasses waste stream is collected for use as a low-grade animal feedstock. A flow chart of this process appears below.

The sugar refining process thus generates a large number of products including raw juice, bagasse, mill mud, clarified juice, etc.
The bulk sugar crystals from the above process are further refined to produce many commercially available sugar products. For example, the further refining may include mixing the bulk sugar crystals with a hot concentrated syrup to soften the outer coating on the crystals. The crystals are then recovered by centrifuge and subsequently dissolved in hot water, a step that is sometimes called affination. This sugar liquor is then further purified by carbonation or phosfloatation, filtration, decolourisation and then seeded with fine sugar crystals. Once the crystals have grown to the requisite size, the crystals are separated from the syrup by centrifuge, then dried, graded and packaged. There may be several repetitions of recovering sugar crystals from the sugar liquor. The dark sugar syrup which is left after all of the sugar crystals have been recovered is also called molasses.
Almost all of the commercially manufactured sugar is white and granulated. White graded sugar is 99.5% sucrose and is made up of crystals averaging 0.6 mm. Caster sugar has an average crystal size of 0.3 mm. Icing sugar is produced by crushing white sugar in a special mill to produce a fine powder.
There are also a range of non-white sugar products including the following:    (a) Coffee sugar is a large grained, brown flavoursome crystal which is produced using the syrups left after extracting the white sugar crystals;    (b) Raw sugar is a straw-coloured granulated sugar produced from sucrose syrups which contain some residual colour and flavour from the sugar cane plant—it is specially selected and handled to ensure a hygienic product;    (c) Golden demerara sugar is a premium raw sugar produced from selected syrups which imparts a rich caramel taste to food; and    (d) Brown sugar is a flavoursome, fine-grained and moist crystal produced by further crystallization of the extracted dark coloured sucrose syrups produced in the separation stages of the refining process.
The syrup left after white sugar has been removed is used to make golden syrup and treacle. These syrups are made in a similar fashion with the difference being that golden syrup is decolourised whereas treacle is not.
Cane Sugar Composition
The composition of cane sugar products and waste streams are complex and quite variable—the chemical composition being principally determined by the geographical source of the sugar cane and the method of processing. For example, FIG. 1 sets out the basic compositional elements for raw and brown sugar from the following 20 commercial sources:                1 to 4: Commercial Raw Sugar Brand 1        5 to 8: Commercial Brown Sugar Brand 1        9: Coffee Sugar Crystals Brand 1        10 and 11: Dark Brown Sugar Brand 1        12 to 15: Commercial Raw Sugar Brand 2        17: Commercial Raw Sugar Brand 3        18: Primary Mill Raw Sugar Sample 1        19: Primary Mill Raw Sugar Sample 2        20: Primary Mill Raw Sugar Sample 3        
Refining Sugar Products
Molasses and other products of the sugar refining process, especially the thick syrups and juices, are complex mixtures of substances. Typically they are difficult to refine further and there are often substances in the compositions that poison standard separating materials. Molasses and the other thick syrups and juices typically comprise polyphenols, polysaccharides, peptides and proteins, minerals, organic acids, and mono and disaccharides.
Molasses, golden syrup and treacle have been used as a health food since the early 20th century and there have been claims that they are good therapies or cures for a wide range of disorders. However the strong taste make them unpalatable to many people and the high viscosity of treacle and molasses makes them difficult to handle and to incorporate into other foodstuffs. Dark sugars such as brown and light brown sugars can be produced by spraying back molasses onto white refined sugar. Due to the content of reducing sugars, colorants and moisture these finished products clump on storage are hygroscopic which limits commercial and industrial use, and discolour many foods. A sugar with high amounts of molasses and sugar milling waste stream products to promote health with reduced hygroscopic properties, improved flow and lighter colour would be desirable.
The other products of cane sugar refining such as bagasse and mill mud are known to include potentially useful substances but their hitherto intractable nature has meant that they are usually thrown away as waste. It would be desirable to have a method to incorporate these valuable waste stream extracts into finished products including, but not limited to sugar.
The inventors' earlier international patent application no WO 2005/117608 teaches one method of extracting useful extracts from the in-process and waste stream products of sugar manufacturing. The methods disclosed in that application produce an extract which is high in polyphenols and which is useful for use in methods such as that disclosed in international patent application no PCT/AU2006/000769. However, this extract does not always reflect the complexity of the contents of the raw material.
List of Abbreviations    BDL Below Detectable Limit    CE Catechin Equivalents    DW Dry Weight    GAE Gallic Acid Equivalents    GI Glycaemic Index    IC or ICUMSA International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis    MF Microfiltration    N/D Not Detected    N/T Not Tested    XAD Ion exchange separation. Whilst the specification refers to the use of the XAD brand of resins, the invention is not limited to this brand of resin and it is possible to use any brand of resin which can be used in ion exchange separations.